An even half agreed there should be a two-year delay in implementing the standards, while 38 percent said there should not.

On a related front, 45 percent of respondents said they believe there is too much state testing in schools, while 16 percent said there is not enough. Twenty-eight percent said the amount of testing is right.

Forty-one percent said they believe the Common Core standards have increased state testing, while just 4 percent said they have decreased it. Thirty percent said the amount of state testing has not changed.

New York Education Commissioner John King has insisted that the standards have not increased the number of tests the state gives. But critics point out that the state's teacher evaluation system has prompted many districts to increase the number of local exams so that teachers can be evaluated in part by their students' test scores.

Most voters said they do not want to turn education policy over to Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Well over half of them -- 62 percent -- trust the state Department of Education and the Board of Regents more than Cuomo to set education policy, with just 21 percent having more trust in the governor to do so.

On another hot education issue, respondents overwhelmingly support using state tax money to fund pre-kindergarten for all of the state's school districts. Fifty-four percent said they would be willing to pay more taxes to support that, with 43 percent opposed.

But 55 percent of respondents said they would use money to support existing school programs before using it for universal pre-k. Thirty-four percent said they would like to see new state money used for pre-k over existing programs.

The poll was conducted February 16-20 by telephone calls to 802 New York registered voters. It has an overall margin of error of +/- 3.5 percentage points.